It is a historic palatial residence located on an artificial island in an oxbow lake of the River Vistula in Otwock Wielki, in the gmina Karczew, powiat otwocki, masovian Voivodeship.

The owner's daughter, Marianna Denhoff née Bielińska, was a favorite of Augustus the Strong, which lent Kazimierz Beliński considerable influence on the two Saxon courts in Dresden and in Warsaw.

He also initiated a renovation of the palace in 1757, which moved the exterior staircases indoors and made other improvements to make it more suitable as a year-round residence rather than just a summer home.

[1] During the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising this nephew set an example of patriotism to his fellow countrymen by offering his Otwock possessions' entire harvest to the common folk gratis, while the capital lay starving, surrounded by the Prussian armies, running out of food.

The night spent there by the troops before the battle, and the palace itself, have been immortalized in Polish literature by Stefan Żeromski in his national epic novel Popioły (in English: Ashes).

The new owner, Aleksander Stanisław Potocki, sold the palace a month later to merchant Jan Jerzy Kurtz, the appointed advisor for the province of Mazowsze.

Sbarboni most likely was not the creator of the palace redesign, but only played the role of a draftsman implementing the concepts of Leandro Marconi, one of the most distinguished architects in 19th century Poland.

The restoration work was interrupted in 1857 by a sudden death of Aniela, the daughter of Jan Jerzy Kurtz, because her heir, son Zygmunt, one of the founders of the Warsaw Horticultural Society, chose other pursuits.

The end of that era coincided with the communist takeover in post-World War II Poland, and the new authorities rudely repurposed the Otwock Wielki palace as a reformatory home for girls, a kind of minimum security prison for troubled or orphaned teens.

Later it was inhabited by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, who in contrast cared little for his reputation or for entertaining distinguished guests, but immediately went about improving the physical condition of the residence.

The place became a huge repository of paintings by Kossak, Artur Grottger, Jacek Malczewski, Henryk Siemiradzki, Józef Marian Chełmoński and many notable others, stashed away from the public by the men that governed the Polish People's Republic, unexposed to the public, including such important cultural legacy artifacts as a posthumous cast of Marshal Józef Piłsudski's face, or his original sabers, or his work desk from the Belweder palace, and many other items associated with the Marshal.

Tylman van Gameren (1632–1706), a prominent Polish architect of Dutch origin, is likely the author of the master plan, which includes both the building and ancillary additions, as well as extensive landscape architecture.

Van Gameren was related to Bieliński's kin by connections created on his assumptions performed for the group of people like Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski and Jan Dobrogost Krasiński, who had close relationships with this influential family.

After earthwork improvements, an oxbow in the river became "Lake Otwock", and the clump[clarification needed], a large island called Rokole Minor, with a picturesque manor house built off to the other side.

A heraldic cartouche of the Junosz coat of arms above the main entrance, hallmark of the Bieliński family, carries emblazoned the motto: Nolo Minor Me Timeat/Descipiciat Que Maior.

Władysław Łoziński described the works thus in his definitive account of Polish life across centuries issued in 1907: "a grim horror of fortified walls passes the visitor off into the lightness and charm of soft architectural lines, the oppressive solemnity of it all yielding to the coquetry of the decorative.

On the ground floor, visitors pass through a representative entryway and dining hall, then can admire the enfilade of rooms in the right wing furnished in the Baroque, Biedermeier and Classicist styles.